Modeling a Wind Turbine Using MathWorks Tools

Steve Miller, MathWorks

For a system as complex as a wind turbine, the ability to simulate the physical systems (mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, etc.) and control systems in a single environment is crucial to the development process. It enables engineers to incorporate requirements into the development process, design at the system level, and to predict and optimize overall system performance without relying only on hardware prototypes. This approach helps engineers produce a turbine design that will produce more power at a lower cost to build and operate.

The model of a complete wind turbine (including mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and control systems) will be used to show:

• How to develop system-level models that can detect integration issues before building hardware• How to automatically run tests, evaluate the results, and document system performance• How simulation models can be converted to C code for tasks such as HIL testing and parameter sweeps

These points will be illustrated with demonstrations using the model and the simulation software. Experience with MATLAB and Simulink is helpful, but not required to learn from this webinar.